ABSTRACT
A total of 17.5 billion lbs of fat and oil was consumed in the U.S. during 1976 (1). This amount equals a daily per capita intake of 0.35 Ibs (157 g). The contribution of vegetable oil to the total dietary fat consumed has continually increased from 16.8% in the early 1900's to 43.3% in 1976. Visible fat alone contributed 12.4 billion lbs to the American diet in 1976. The contribution of various fats to this total is given in Figure 1, which shows that soybean oil provides almost 60% or 7.3 billion lbs of visible fat (20). The contribution of partially hydrogenated soybean oil to the total yearly per capita consumption is estimated to be 24.1 lbs (Figure 2) (33). This estimated value also includes a small amount of other hydrogenated vegetable oils.
